The Context
The global threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a great challenge to mankind. AMR is the ability of a microorganism (bacteria, viruses, and some parasites) to stop an antimicrobial (such as antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others. Annual deaths due to AMR related infections are ~700,000 and projected to rise up to 10 million by 2050. New antibiotics are not the solution to this problem, since bacteria can adapt and acquire new resistance, therefore vaccination remains the most effective intervention to prevent and treat infection.
Why Bactivax
We have created BactiVax (anti-Bacterial Innovative Vaccines) to tackle the societal challenge caused by the emergence of AMR human pathogens and bring significant impact on dealing with those causing chronic, life-threatening respiratory or systemic infections. BactiVax will target selected ESKAPE pathogens, which are a group of multidrug resistant bacteria that are the leading cause of hospital infections globally and which ‘escape’ the biocidal action of antibiotics. ESKAPE pathogens include Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Staphylococci, etc. BactiVax will also target Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), a leading cause of death worldwide. No approved vaccines exist for P. aeruginosa, Burkholderia or Staphylococci, and the current vaccine against Mtb is ineffective in adults. To tackle these life threatening AMR infections, we must advance vaccine design with improved antigens and more effective delivery systems.
WHO WE ARE
BactiVax nucleates 14 world-class experts in vaccinology, proteomics, medicine, microbiology, biochemistry, immunology, structural biology, medicinal, peptide and glycochemistry, from 8 European countries to investigate complementary facets of vaccine research and development.
The programme also includes 10 academic beneficiaries, 2 SMEs as full beneficiaries and 5 industry partners that will collectively train 15 high-achieving and creative Early Stage Researchers (ESRs).
BactiVax Beneficiaries
BactiVax Partners
OUR APPROACH
Our common goal is to develop effective vaccines against challenging antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections.
One key aspect that effective vaccine design must consider is the host immune response. Harnessing the immune response against AMR-related chronic infections will enable us to develop therapeutic vaccines for effectively combating this issue. Thus, BactiVax spans interdisciplinary core areas in bacterial vaccinology, from early antigen discovery to optimisation of host response, vaccine adjuvant design, and vaccine delivery. The high-quality interdisciplinary and advanced research training in vaccinology for BactiVax ESRs is critical to meet the AMR challenge and provide ESRs with state-of-the-art transferrable skills to transform vaccine development in Europe and beyond.
BactiVax has 4 main aims:
To identify novel, protective vaccine antigens against target pathogens (WP1).
To optimise the host response to vaccines (WP2).
To optimise vaccine delivery (WP3).
To lead on vaccine advocacy (WP4).